Tag Archives: steve urbon
Steve Urbon: Oceana pitches flawed fishing report undeterred
The environmental group Oceana seeks to impress us this week with Part 2 of a report on fishing bycatch, those fish that are brought up incidentally while fishermen target another species. “Wasted Cash,” the follow-up to “Wasted Catch,” says that fishermen are throwing $1 billion worth of fish away each year, over the side instead of going to auction. Read more here 08:50
‘The fish aren’t there’? Industry isn’t buying it
But the fishing community continues to disbelieve the National Marine Fisheries Service when it says, in the voice of John Bullard, “The fish aren’t there.”
The fish have moved, they insist. Too-warm water during mild winters drove them to colder water. But a cold winter such as this one could bring them back almost overnight. February and March will tell, with the coldest water.
And if that happens, there’s trouble, because under the strict limits set by the New England Fishery Management Council this week, the low quotas for Gulf of Maine cod cannot be revisited for three years without a complete stock assessment.
